From: "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@...>
Date: 2007-10-25T13:18:37+09:00
Subject: Re: A Ruby/Rails bibliography

James Britt wrote:
> Deven Ullman wrote:
>> On Oct 16, 9:36 am, "Giles Bowkett" <gil...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> My first intro to map, et al., was
>>> "Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.")
>>
>> It really isn't very much like a Perl translation of SICP.
>>
>> SICP is the textbook for the MIT introduction to computer science
>> class, and as such addresses a lot of important foundational issues at
>> a fundamental level.
>>
>> HOP, on the other hand, is a manual of techniques for programming in
>> Perl. It was never intended to address the important and significant
>> basic issues that SICP addresses, or to provide a basic education in
>> fundamental principles of programming or computer science, except as
>> far as is necessary to support the specific techniques that it does
>> discuss.
>>
>> The two books are directed at completely different audiences, and
>> serve very different purposes.
> 
> I've not read HOP, but I've read SICP, and I'd wager there are few other 
> books that would do a better job of improving one's Ruby skills.
> 
> Ruby Reading List:
> 
> - Pick-axe
> - Ruby for Rails
> - SICP
> 
> 
> And maybe start with SICP ...
> 
> 

The problem with starting with SICP (or "The Little Schemer", or any 
other Scheme book, for that matter) is that you may not *want* to learn 
another language -- ever. If you want to learn Ruby, do yourself a favor 
and start with a Ruby book. :)

Scheme (and Forth) are addicting as all get-out. They're hardly "gateway 
drugs" to other languages. BTW, I've looked at HOP a number of times but 
I've never wanted to buy it -- too many good Scheme books around. :)